Advertising markets continued to show signs of recovery in the first quarter of 2014, according to the RTL Group in its Q1, 2014 report.
With the exceptions of Germany which was estimated to be stable and France which was estimated to be down 2.0%, all European net TV advertising markets in RTL Group’s territories were up year-on-year.
Reported Group revenue was stable at €1,313 million (Q1/2013: €1,317 million). Lower revenues at UFA Sports and negative exchange rate effects were offset by higher revenues from RTL Nederland and FremantleMedia.
In January 2014, RTL Hrvatska launched its new children’s channel RTL Kockica in Croatia. In the first quarter 2014, the new channel already achieved an average daytime audience share of 20.6% among children in the country.
On March 27, RTL CBS Asia Entertainment Network launched its second pay-TV channel RTL CBS Extreme HD. The channel aims to cater male audiences and offers action-packed entertainment programmes. The channel is already on air in Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.
On May 8, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland launches its new pay-TV channel, Geo Television, which will be available on Deutsche Telekom’s IPTV platform Entertain
“Overall, we had a good start into the year and generated one of our best first-quarter results. While Groupe M6 and RTL Radio operated in a continuously very challenging economic environment in France, all our other broadcasters reported higher or stable profit contributions year-on-year, benefiting from the recovery of most of our European TV advertising markets<” said Anke Schäferkordt and Guillaume de Posch, Co-Chief Executive Officers of RTL Group, in a joint statement.
“We are continuing to invest across all strategic pillars: broadcast, content and digital. We are delighted about the successful launch of our Croatian children’s channel RTL Kockica and are looking forward to launching a new pay-TV channel, Geo Television, in Germany today, which builds on the strong and popular magazine brand ‘Geo’. Additionally, we have significantly strengthened our position in the US with the acquisition of495 Productions which is one of the leading production companies for the growing US cable market.”
